Catching up with the Challengers: 6th CD Democrat Paul Richmond wants to bring some justice to a corrupt Washington

Paul Richmond, Democratic candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in the 6th District that covers much of Tacoma and the Olympic and Kitsap Peninsulas, calls himself the "story telling lawyer" in his private law practice. With his candidacy for Congress, Richmond hopes to tell the story of a nation turning its back on a history of civil liberties, experiencing economic trouble and a shrinking middle class, and how the current representatives in Washington, D.C. are not doing enough to change that.

"There is a lot of dissatisfaction with Mr. Dicks in all ends of the district from what I've been able to see so far," Richmond said of incumbent Rep. Norm Dicks, his fellow Democrat from Belfair. "That's one of the things that motivated this campaign."

Richmond has worked on a number of political causes in his day, notably helping to keep University of Washington Police forces from carrying assault weapons and end a program that brought National Guardsmen in on police drug raids.

"I've gotten some recognition from that and I think that is something, with a bit of luck and Body English, can carry me pretty far," Richmond said of his strengths as a candidate in an interview with PolitickerWA. "I'm someone who is willing to ask hard questions."

Mainly, though, Richmond believes that the culture of Washington, D.C is a corrupting one, and that Dicks has been there for too long.

"I had the privilege of hosting Arthur Kinoy the late attorney for MLK when he did the last tour through the PNW," Richmond recounted. "I asked him what was it like to know Dr. King? He said constant struggle because he kept getting sucked into the Washington culture. That was Dr. King. Mr. Dicks has been there 32 years."

In Richmond's eyes such an atmosphere has allowed for a government far too reliant on special interests, and deeply involved in the erosion of American's civil liberties. He calls today's atmosphere similar to the days of John Adams and the Alien and Sedition Act. "We need tough reps who are more sensitive to that so we can start to put things in check. You have to have a critical eye to look at these things and say, what's really going on here?"

Richmond, who has long been a champion of civil rights as a lawyer and a journalist, understands that the platform personal liberties can be a tough rallying point in general politics but maintains that it is a growing problem.

"You can talk about it as a theoretical concept that hurts other people, but it's starting to hurt people in very real ways locally," Richmond said. "Partly through its outgrowth like through the war on crime, we now have more people locked up than in any other country on the planet, 99% of us can probably be convicted of felonies if they decided to try us, if you go 15mph above the speed limit, it's a felony, things like that."

Additionally, Richmond is concerned that the people who are bearing the heavy costs of the increased prison populations and liberty infringements that have resulted from the Patriot Act are the poor and working class and, of particular interest to the 6th District, friends and family of people serving in the military.

"We are seeing an erosion of the middle class, we are seeing an erosion of a lot of people's ability to survive," Richmond said, recalling how a few decades ago a family could get by with one working member.

Now, though, he believes such a life is increasingly more difficult to come by and, combined with the increased anti-crime and anti-terrorism laws, it is akin to a criminalization of poverty. "They get caught up in the system and it chews them up and spits them out. And once you start falling into that it's very hard to dig yourself out. I am hopeful we can have a chance of turning that around. I think we are in a world of hurt if we don't."

To help lift up those same people who have been affected by the civil liberty problems, Richmond opposes trade agreements like NAFTA and GATT and advocates for a more locally-based economy with protections against subsidized foreign traders. "We need to have a more level playing field against them, very simply," he says.

Richmond also advocates for reducing the role of special interests in politics, which he sees through rampant earmarks that help economic interests first and local communities second, and the astronomical costs of running for office, where moneyed interests exert a disproportionately high influence over campaigns.

"It has gotten to be a really kind of strange, expensive game to just run for office," Richmond mused. "Why does it cost many times your salary just to have a job like this? It's kind of absurd when you think about it."

He also thinks that the current crop of politicians have been paralyzed in their policy ambitions by the way large industries hold clout in Washington.

"We don't have adequate health care because we've got ‘Big Pharma', we don't have an adequate renewable energy policy because we've got huge pressure from oil companies and the coal industry, the nuclear industry."

Richmond ideally supports a single-payer health care system to help reduce the footprint of special interests, but first and foremost thinks America should change the way it does business with the pharmaceutical industry.

"We have to stop subsidizing their research and then they are holding onto all the profits," Richmond pressed, "that's a little bit messed up and we can be doing more than that. You get the technology that requires the dominance in the field and you get a monopoly that we were supposed to get rid of many decades ago. We had rules against monopoly and they have been creeping back in.

On energy in particular, Richmond proposes that America look more and more into solar power and other renewables and suggests Congress establish more grants and economic incentives for companies to begin working in renewable energy. Furthermore, he finds vehicle fuel economy standards embarrassing.

"We need to be going way beyond what most of the things these people are talking about," Richmond said. "I find it kind of difficult that they celebrate the Toyota Prius when the Geo Metro 15 years ago was getting comparable mileage. Even the Model T, we're still working with technology that's basically one hundred years old."

Richmond is also staunchly against the war in Iraq, and supports the immediate withdrawal of American troops.

"I think we need to get out of there ASAP," he says. "Most of that population wants us out now, that's what they're asking for. We're not going to be the ones who are going to be able to unite these people. There is over a thousand year history of people in that region dealing with occupation of Anglo/Euro nations. They're not looking for us to sort their life out for them. These are intelligent people. I think if we treat people with a little bit more respect around the world we will start getting it back."

Richmond's campaign at this point is barebones in much the same way that his law office is run, relying on hard work and low overhead. He has not hired a staff or published fundraising information, and most of his campaign has consisted of traveling around the district speaking to Democrats and handing out literature.

 "You can dump many dollars into things like TV ads and that can eat up a lot of your budget but there are other ways you can actually use more person to person contact and that's a lot stronger and frankly a lot less expensive if we can get volunteers to do it with a grassroots campaign," Richmond explained.

He also looks to Presidential campaigns as basic models for an insurgent candidate. "The playing field is changing a lot as we saw in the Dean campaign and we're seeing the Obama campaign where a lot of funding is coming from people who are really excited about seeing issues that are actually being covered."

Accordingly, the Port Townsend lawyer is confident that his message will resonate with heretofore complacent voters.

 "If you talk to them honestly, if you get past the jingoism of, ‘is it left or right?', no it's the bill of rights," Richmond believes that people will support him.

"If you're in the military and you have to go to money tree and living paycheck to paycheck, if you're house is being foreclosed upon, if your marriage is breaking you people understand there is something going on. It takes constant vigilance on all of our parts to be assessing what is going on, calling it what it is and taking the corrective steps."

Step one, according to Paul Richmond, is electing him to Congress.